Watch Ronda Rousey’s Rowdiest Rookie Year Moments From WWE

Let’s take it back to just over a year ago. The dirt sheets were ablaze. Speculation was running rampant. Fans put on their gumshoes and played “Where in the World is ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey?” What they didn’t know—for sure anyway—is Ronda was chilling for hours and hours in an undisclosed location like a secret operative waiting on the signal from SEAL Team Six to infiltrate the 2018 Royal Rumble.

Once Joan Jett blasted through the arena, everyone knew what was up. Ronda stomped down the ramp to stare down the competition and add her name to a rich history of Rumble debuts. The coolest thing about it though was doing it all in Roddy Piper’s actual freaking leather jacket.

We’d have to wait a whole month for Ronda to sign her contract at Elimination Chamber, complete with UFC’s Cain Velasquez and double-champ Daniel Cormier marking out in the front row. She did more than just put pen to paper, she put Triple H through a table. It earned her a slap as well as the angry, growling McMahon voice from Commissioner Stephanie. She asked Ronda just who the hell she thought she was and over the next few months, she’d prove it was the baddest woman on the planet.

Armbars got handed out. She was climbing out of the crowd to impart vigilante justice in matches. Ronda even started teaching judo lessons to figuratively and literally the biggest women on the roster, using her own O-goshi remix to throw Nia Jax at Money in the Bank. She tossed and tangled all the way to SummerSlam where she dethroned Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women’s Championship. Which would just create an even bigger target on her back. 

It didn’t take long for even her (supposed) buddies The Bella Twins to turn on her, but it was nothing a rolling armbar from the top rope couldn’t solve at Evolution. Maybe Nikki Bella will think twice before she stabs someone else in the back.

So much was packed in Ronda’s year from Rumble to Rumble and there is still a Becky Lynch saga to wrap up at this year’s WrestleMania. The psychopathic attacks and distractions haven’t been enough for any challenger to take the title away from Ronda yet. After a legendary rookie of the year level run, the boots are still stomping and all paths lead to making history with “The Man.”